In my line of work, I connect to many servers daily. I have these pinned to the Windows 7 taskbar, enabling me to easily connect to a server by simply right clicking on the taskbar icon and selecting the server. One thing that has annoyed me with Windows 7, is that when connecting to a server, I am always prompted for credentials– even if I’ve selected the option to save the credentials.

Well, I finally looked into it, and found a way to fix this. I’m sure Microsoft would claim there’s a “security” reason that it’s not enabled by default– but IMO, the checkbox to save credentials shouldn’t be there if it’s not configured to work…

To enable Windows 7 to save RDP credentials when connecting to Windows 2008 R2 servers, you must complete these steps on your client computer:

On the right, double click ‘Allow Delegating Default Credentials with NTLM-only Server Authentication’. Set the setting to ‘ Enabled’, click ‘Show’, and enter ‘*’ for the Value. Click ‘OK’ when done.

Do the same with ‘Allow Delegating saved Credential with NTLM-only Server Authentication’

Now, the Remote Desktop client will remember your credentials– including ones you’ve previously saved. This may seem like a minor thing, but shaving seconds here and there will turn into hours saved later– plus any frustration/annoyance/distraction from fat-fingering passwords when connecting.